Jumping rope has been a popular children's activity since the Middle Ages. Since the 1970's, it has come into the mainstream as a staple of many of the most popular exercise regimes. For example, jumping rope is an essential part of the CrossFit exercise program (available from CrossFit, Inc. of Washington, D.C.). More than 4,000 gyms offer CrossFit classes and hundreds of thousands of people a year follow the program.
Jumping rope has long been a popular exercise due to its health benefits in aerobic and anaerobic training, as well as the enjoyment in performing fun, challenging, and dynamic variety of skills. Jump rope routines may condition multiple muscle groups simultaneously via a natural, full-body motion.
Jump rope routines have a short learning curve because jumping rope leverages natural body motions. This gentle learning curve makes jumping rope accessible to easily discouraged novices, increasing the chances that a new jump roper will stick with a jump-rope-based workout regime. This may provide an opportunity to offer additional jump rope-based products to a jump rope user as they progress such as additional workout videos, new jump ropes and the like.
Jumping rope has become an increasingly popular cross-training exercise because of recent fitness trends that indicate a preference for exercises that offer functional, full-body motions that condition several muscles and train several skills in a natural body motion. Jump ropes are uniquely suited to cross-training exercise regimes because the user may vary the resistive forces of the jump rope in a variety of ways. For example, the centripetal force exerted by a jump rope as it is being rotated is proportional to the mass of the jump rope. Thus, if the mass of the jump rope is doubled, a jump roper must work about twice as hard to spin the rope at the same speed. The centripetal force exerted by a jump rope as it is being rotated is proportional to the square of the rope's angular velocity. Thus, if the jump rope spins twice as fast, a jump roper must work four times as hard to counteract the centripetal force exerted by the spinning jump rope.
This unique combination of resistive forces (i.e. centripetal force due to jump rope mass and configuration and centripetal force due to jump rope speed) enables anaerobic and aerobic exercise using the same equipment, during the same exercise routine. The availability of strength training and cardiovascular workouts from a single piece of exercise equipment greatly increases the utility of the equipment to the user. It reduces the equipment needed to successfully exercise. Additionally, user familiarity and comfort with the jump rope is increased because the user spends a significant amount of time with the jump rope instead of dividing time between multiple exercise apparatuses.
If a jump rope of appropriate size and weight is provided, jumping rope enables the user to target specific muscle groups and to develop fast twitch muscle or slow twitch muscle. For example, thin and light jump ropes enable the user to focus on cardiovascular fitness. This may tone the users muscles and reduce fat. Heavier ropes may be utilized by users wishing to improve muscle tone and bulk in their forearms, biceps, and shoulders.
Specialized workouts may be used in conjunction with specifically chosen jump ropes in order to target certain muscle groups during exercise. High knee jumping with a heavy jump rope, for example, may target the user's arms and core muscles. Single- and double-leg high knee exercises may greatly increase fast twitch leg muscles. Over time this may enable high power output in the user's legs. Side rope swings may isolate and improve the fitness of the user's arms when consistently added to a workout routine.
While a jump rope's resistance may be varied during a workout (thereby transitioning between anaerobic and aerobic exercise), and different jump rope-based workout routines may be used to target certain muscle groups, further enhancing the flexibility and utility of a jump rope is desirable. One method of providing enhancements is providing a jump rope with adjustable features such as adjustable or interchangeable physical characteristics.
There are several known examples of jump ropes that have adjustable features. However, the effectiveness, ease of adjustment, and scope of scalability of these adjustments has not been fully realized. Jump rope handles have been disclosed which are capable of simultaneously connecting multiple ropes. However, this design results in handles that are awkward to hold and make jumping rope more difficult because of the number of ropes that have to pass beneath a jumper's feet and that could get caught.
In order to improve the functionality of a jump rope, some jump ropes, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,101,123 to Anthony, contain a ball bearing embedded in the handle that can be removed. However, this design limits the potential weight of the rope because excessive centrifugal force while jumping rope could unexpectedly dislodge the ball bearing from the rope.
The functionality of a jump rope may be expanded by altering the physical characteristics of the rope itself. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,906 to Wilson discloses a jump rope that allows interchanging of a stiff bottom center section of the rope in order to widen and flatten the base over which the jumper jumps in an effort decrease the necessary skill or ability required to perform the jump roping action. The interchanging center section allows the user to vary the resistance by selecting a section that varies in weight and stiffness. However, this is an ineffective method to vary resistance due to the awkward shape of the rope structure where one end of the center section can hit the ground before the other end does. This results in the rope bouncing up to hit the jumper's foot or leg. Additionally, this rope shape does not give the jumper the ability to perform any arm crossing or side-to-side rope jumping skills because the center section obstructs the performance of these types of motion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,985 to Hlasnicek also discloses a jump rope with variable weight configurations. The handles have overlapping plastic sleeves that may remain on the handles for the lighter of the rope weight configurations or the user may slide the sleeves down to the center of the rope to overlap the existing plastic segments resulting in a slightly higher rope weight and resulting resistance. However, this design limits the variety and variability of weighted configurations and the composite jump rope weight does not change, just the positioning of the weight. Exclusion of a means to alter the mass of the jump rope limits the functionality and versatility of the jump rope.
Some jump rope devices disclose methods of adding mass to the jump rope, such as utilizing a hollow tube as the rope portion of the jump rope device and then filling the tube with a material such as sand or water. Although this provides a method of increasing the mass of the rope, such designs bend easily and in an unpredictable manner, resulting in an inconsistent and inefficient motions and thus, inefficient workouts.
Different motions are essential to a versatile jump rope exercise regime. For example, many jumping techniques target the upper body by incorporating arm- or hand-crossing movements. When a jump rope is used in such a manner, the design of the attachment point of the rope to the handle is critical. Many jump rope designs, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,606 to Hunn, disclose a jump rope handle with a radial bearing and a plastic member with an exterior recess whereby the rope can be attached using a universal connector. The radial bearing orientation, however, is not optimal for any hand crossing jump rope motions.
Some jump rope devices disclose the addition of mass to the handles of the jump rope device. While the addition of mass to the handles of a jump rope device does have some effect on a workout routine, the addition of mass to the rotating portion of the jump rope device have a much greater impact on resistive forces imparted on the user during a workout. Additionally, increasing mass on the rotating portions (i.e. the rope portion) of a jump rope device allows the jump rope device to be more versatile because resistive forces can be varied by spinning the jump rope faster or slower.
Some jump rope devices, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,544,148 to Loew, disclose a jump rope wherein the weight of the handles and the weight of the rope can be adjusted via the addition of counterweights at designated areas on the rope. This results in a lack of uniformity in the mass distribution of the rope. Such uneven mass distribution yields an awkward feel and operation, resulting in less efficient workouts and an increased learning curve for novice users.
Although jump ropes have existed for a long time in many various embodiments, there is an emerging niche market for a jump rope that has several customized characteristics in order to meet a jump rope user's specific workout needs. Some examples of this are very lightweight, fast revolving jump ropes used for speed and quickness exercises and skills. Other jump rope devices utilize heavy ropes for strength-type training. Quality jump ropes that meet these needs tend to be very expensive. For a jump rope user who wants to perform multiple types of jump rope exercises and workouts it can be expensive to purchase multiple jump ropes. An additional problem for consumers is that heavy jump ropes traditionally have been constructed of materials that are prone to breakage, particularly at the interface between the handle and the rope.
Currently, no jump rope device exists which can provide a fun, challenging, scalable training routine for novices, advanced users, and those in between. Thus, what is needed is a jump rope device which enables anaerobic and aerobic workouts for a variety of skill levels. Additionally, what is needed is a jump rope device which enables traditional jumping motions in addition to arm-crossing and hand-crossing motions.
Given the foregoing, strong, durable connection points that provide smooth and fast rotation for both heavy and light jump ropes are also needed. Additionally, there is a need for jump rope handles configured to easily attach and detach cables of varying characteristics including thickness, mass, and length.